Rollins, who also managed Ross Perot’s independent bid in 1992, told CNN that he became increasingly impressed with Huckabee and decided to make this his last campaign.

Huckabee has overtaken Mitt Romney in the polls in early caucus state Iowa, and is closing in on Rudy Giuliani in national polls.

“The struggle now is to take it beyond Iowa and go nationally, and what you have is a growing candidacy, and I think I can help,” Rollins told CNN.

Rollins’ move was scheduled to be announced at a press conference in Concord, N.H., Friday afternoon.

“The fact that he would throw his support behind Huckabee lends the former governor some Republican institutional credibility,” The Hill newspaper observes, “especially as he appears to be surging in the early states.”